When using dual monitors Windows Aero can effect the realtime playback. I think there is a post or thread about tweaking your system out to use PP but I don't know the url to post a link. Someone else might post the link for you.

From the specs you gave, the CPU and the video card are good enough to playback of most material without problems. This also applies to dual monitor setups and with Aero enabled. On a lowly i7-920 I have no problems with dual monitors, Aero enabled, with 5 tracks with a mixture of DV, HDV, XDCAM, AVCHD and XF 4:2:2 material in both PAL and NTSC and using massive amounts of effects.

Your problem is probably not the video card, but your disk setup and to a lesser degree the amount of memory. If you only have that SSD, that is definitely the cause of your problems, below minimum requirements and your most important system bottleneck. The GPU can't do anything if it is waiting for your SSD to finish work, and a SSD is notoriously bad with writing compressed video material.

lol yea i know my specs should play most material which was why i was so confused on why i cant even play a mp4 ... just the single track.

i dont think aero is a problem as this is a fresh install of windows and i havent turned it on yet. but unplugging the 2nd monitor did do the trick, now i can play around 8 hdv layers without any problems.

as for the setup, my C drive with cache is on the ssd. i also have a 1tb 7200 hdd, so maybe ill try running the file on that?

but anyway, im away on a job atm for a couple of days, but will get back to that pc soon. thanks so much for the tips, i had no idea ssds are bad for video, ironically it was kinda the reason i got the ssd... lol oh well.

btw, what do u mean when u said below minimum reqs? and as for the amount of memory, i guess a little low?